1. Field Of The Invention
The invention pertains generally to the field of fragrance distribution inside buildings, and pertains specifically to dispensing selected types and quantities of fragrances into the existing heating-ventilation-air-conditioning (HVAC) ductwork that supplies air to different rooms within the building.
2. Description Of Related Art And Objectives Of The Invention
Building dwellers are concerned with the quality of the ambient indoor air. Offensive odors affect the quality of indoor air, and the art has provided several devices and methods for masking those odors. Some such devices are hand held and must be manually operated, thus drawing human resources away from other tasks. In other indoor situations, it is simply desirable to improve the surroundings by dispensing selected fragrances at selected times. Such dispensing devices are preferably automated so that they will operate without active human intervention.
The art has provided several fragrance dispensing systems such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,632 which discloses a fragrance generation apparatus that dispenses selected amounts of fragrance at selected time intervals into the air inside buildings. U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,030 discloses a programmable scent-emitting system for dispensing a plurality of fragrances as does U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,604. U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,387 discloses an aroma generating apparatus while U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,353 discloses an alarm clock designed to emit a scent, rather than a noise or a light, at a selected time. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,111,477 and 5,175,791 disclose electrically-operated fragrance diffusers. However, none of these patents disclose a device or method which provides the needed versatility and capability desirable today.
The shortcomings in conventional devices and methods motivated the instant invention, and a first objective is to provide an apparatus for dispensing fragrance into HVAC ductwork ventilated by a forcing fan, the apparatus comprising a plurality of fragrance containers joined to a plurality of programmable timers, each of the programmable timers for selectively operating one of said containers, each of the fragrance containers for dispensing fragrance into the HVAC ductwork supplying a different room.
Another objective is to provide a fragrance dispensing apparatus comprising a plurality of solenoids, one each of said solenoids joined to one of the fragrance containers for selectively dispensing a fragrance from the container into the HVAC ductwork.
Still another objective is to provide a method for using a fragrance dispensing apparatus which comprises a programmable timer that allows the fragrance to be dispensed into the HVAC ductwork at selected times and for selected durations.
A further objective is to provide a fragrance dispensing system that comprises a fan timer that operates the forcing fan for a selected duration after the fragrance is dispensed into the HVAC ductwork, thereby distributing the fragrance into the room supplied by the ductwork.
Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed description is set forth below.